Gestational Diabetes

How do doctors test for gestational diabetes?

Gestational diabetes is defined by an additional screening test at approximately 26 to 28 weeks of pregnancy that when positive you have to perform a diagnostic diabetes test which involves quite a stay at the doctor's office. You come into the doctor's office fasting. They then test your blood at a fasting blood level for glucose. They make you drink a concentrated sugar drink and then test your blood one, two and three hours afterwards. They then take the values and they evaluate you as to whether or not you've met the criteria for gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes is diabetes unique to pregnancy in that it occurs in pregnancy and the cure most often is delivery. It actually goes away when you deliver.